


Double Trouble Studies Catra

by mage_cat



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-29
Updated: 2019-10-29
Packaged: 2021-01-06 04:24:12
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21220529
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mage_cat/pseuds/mage_cat
Summary: Double Trouble will gladly spend hours observing a target to perfect their performance. What they observe studying Catra surprises them.





	Double Trouble Studies Catra

When Double Trouble had agreed to their cousin Glimmer’s plan to infiltrate the Horde, they hadn’t expected Lord Catra’s form to be one of the more pleasant new shapes they had learned in some time, but it was. Forms that required Double to sacrifice little if any of their natural flexibility were rare, but the catgirl shape fit the bill nicely.

The pretty face didn’t hurt either. Or at least, they realized as they studied it to perfect their mimicry, it might have been pretty in a kinder life. Whatever sweetness that heart-shaped face and those fine-boned features may have had the potential for had by now been firmly replaced by a hardness around the eyes and a tensed jaw. Pretty was the wrong word for something so stern.

Admittedly, the sternness was only a default. Catra suited her expression to her audience with a skill that almost made Double wonder if there wasn’t a bit of a shapeshifter to her too. She did bear a resemblance to the legendary magicats. Whether that species had ever existed or not was a matter of debate, along with what exactly their magical skills had been if they had existed, but Catra’s origins seemed to have been equally mysterious. She, like many of the Horde’s youngest soldiers, was certainly a war orphan, but orphaned by what battle or conquest was something no one could say. There were certainly no other members of her species visible among the Horde’s ranks.

And then there was the expression Catra wore when she didn’t realize anyone was looking, the one that looked like she was on the cusp of breaking. They know she is around Glimmer’s age. Double Trouble themself is twenty-three years old, just old enough to realize how damn young eighteen is, even if many of those years had been hard. Double Trouble had braced themself to witness things that might horrify them. They had not been ready to feel sorry for the Horde’s new co-leader.

Once, when Double Trouble had been accompanying Catra on the way to an errand, they had happened across a cadet, a lizard-girl around twelve years old, elbows deep in something that she was obviously not supposed to be in. Double steeled themself to standing by while the child faced a harsh reprimand, perhaps delivered with a slap. Instead, Catra observed the scene with an almost melancholy smile before she crouched down to the girl’s level and, judging by the young one’s face, correctly identified the prank she was setting up before suggesting a modification that would ensure the target wouldn’t actually get hurt. Willfully injuring your fellow soldiers was not to be tolerated, but trainers were likely to look the other way if the worst bruise was only to a person’s pride. It was an almost sisterly scene, perhaps the closest to such a thing one could find between people for whom the Horde was their only family.

Double Trouble knows that the Horde must be stopped, but as time moves on, they begin to wonder more and more often, with more and more guilt, just how much Catra must be punished in the process. How dare she make them like her. Yes, there are crimes she must pay for, but with the Rebellion’s changing tactics under Glimmer’s command, they aren’t sure the conflict will end with their little cousin having any less blood on her hands.

The purpose of a spy is to win battles before they even start. Could there be a way to win the battle for Etheria’s freedom and the battles for both Glimmer’s and Catra’s souls at the same time?


End file.
